Great fan art doesn’t just attract the attention of fellow fans. Sometimes, they’re so professional that they catch the eyes of pros in the industry. Case in point: Ben Mauro, a student at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Long before BioShock 2 was officially announced, Mauro posted images from a student project that quickly made their rounds through the gaming blogosphere. His unofficial images for a proposed sequel to BioShock looked so good, that some confused it for genuine concept art. 2K Games, the creators of BioShock, even got in touch with Mauro to express how much they liked his work and to thank him. You can visit Mauro’s blog to see more of his BioShock 2 images and keep up on his latest work.

Above: Official concept art for Rapture’s lobby from the original BioShock looks great, but is severely lacking in the “Giant Mecha-whale” department

Gordon Freeman is to PC gamers as Mario is to Nintendo fans. But as much as we love Valve’s official art of the Half-Life series’ protagonist, it’s Anry Nemo’s portrayal of the stoic scientist we like best.